In the best parts of our tradition as LGBTQ people for liberation, we have resisted assimilation. We have held die-ins, we have risked our lives at pride celebrations, we have been willing to be part of spectacle and even to be hated—in the hope that our work would mean motion towards liberation. We have witnessed a mainstream LGBT movement that has moved away from these practices, and many of us have spent years in conference centers and hotel rooms all around this country pushing back against a mainstreaming of this movement. It is not enough to disagree with the mainstream agenda. We must be actively creating, resourcing, and organizing new strategies that move a politics of intersectionality into the fields, the small towns, the cities, the bedrooms, the televisions, and the visions of this country and this world. These strategies must work tirelessly to build contagious power with those LGBTQ people who have been left behind by a mainstream gay rights agenda and the unlikely allies who have been passed by. In the past two years, SONG has mobilized and transformed thousands of LGBTQ people in the South through two campaigns. In 2011, our campaign against anti-immigrant hate in Georgia unleashed the power of an unprecedented number of LGBTQ people in a fight for liberation that was not slanted “single-issue” toward the traditional definition of gay rights. In 2012, our fight against the antifamily amendment in North Carolina (denying the basic rights of all unmarried couples and our children) was named by the North Carolina News Service as one of the biggest grassroots efforts in the history of North Carolina. Both of these campaigns happened in the South: the part of the country that the media tells us is the most hateful and hostile to marginalized communities. We know without a doubt that all the successes in this work originate from the thousands of LGBTQ southerners and allies who led these efforts. They are voting for a new queer agenda with their sweat, risk taking, and voices. SONG listened to them, created an organizational container, and provided strategic direction. They did the rest. At every turn, when we reframed messages away from a narrow, single-issue, gay rights agenda, our people on the ground responded with vigorous affirmation, agitation, and effort.

All over this country, our people grow tired of a defensive, apologetic LGBT strategy against the right wing. Bullies do not stop when they are appeased. We have nothing to apologize for, and yet we watch as our own people and issues are publicly “de-gayed,” portrayed as middle-class and white—all in the name of eventual equality. In the South, we watch tall grass grow up over the houses where our neighbors used to live and over the businesses that used to populate our small towns. We watch as our family members are detained and deported, our comrades are pushed involuntarily into sex work just to survive, and our children are incarcerated. We turn on the television and hear a conversation about LGBTQ people every day that names us as perverted; sinful; and worthy of pain, isolation, and death. Yet our mainstream movement, which claims it speaks for us, tells us to wait for policy wins. We are assured that these wins will trickle down to us as some form of victory on our behalf. As people living in the South, as undocumented immigrants, as people of color, as trans people, as rural people, and as people with disabilities, SONG says this is not good enough. In the absence of stronger national leadership, we call on queer liberationists to build and amplify our power and take our rightful leadership regardless of the scale of our organizations: local, statewide, regional, or national. This article seeks to lay out a little bit more about evolving thoughts on how to do just that, from a Southern perspective on queer liberation. We hope that it inspires other groups (who have not already done so) to seize the moment, stop, listen, and respond to the conditions of today.

Monday, December 17, 2012

In December of 2006, New Orleans' social justice community came together to draft a letter addressed to foundations and funders, in response to the dismal response to the continuing post-Katrina crisis. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and other disasters still to come, the issues raised then are as relevant as ever. The letter is reproduced below, along with many of the original names of those who signed on; a range of signatories that helps show the extent of the anger and frustration felt at that time. We also encourage those interested in this issue to see this 2007 letter written by civil rights lawyer Bill Quigley.

LETTER FROM THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS TO OUR FRIENDS AND ALLIES

December 15, 2006

We, the undersigned, represent a wide range of grassroots New Orleans organizers, activists, artists, educators, media makers, health care providers and other community members concerned about the fate of our city. This letter is directed to all those around the world concerned about the fate of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but is especially intended for US-based nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other institutions with resources and finances that have been, or could be, directed towards the Gulf Coast.

In the days after the storm, there were promises of support from the federal government and an array of nongovernmental organizations, such as progressive and liberal foundations and nonprofits. Small and large organizations have done fundraising on our behalf, promising to deliver resources and support to the people of New Orleans.

Many organizations and individuals have supported New Orleans-led efforts with time, resources, and advocacy on our behalf, and for this we are very grateful. These folks followed through on their commitments and offered support in a way that was respectful, responsible, and timely.

However, we are writing this letter to tell you that, aside from these very important exceptions, the support we need has not arrived, or has been seriously limited, or has been based upon conditions that become an enormous burden for us.

We remain in crisis, understaffed, underfunded and in many cases in desperate need of help. From the perspective of the poorest and least powerful, it appears that the work of national allies on their behalf has either not happened or if it has happened it has been a failure.

In the days after August 29, 2005 the world watched as our city was devastated. This destruction was not caused by Hurricane Katrina, but by failures of local, state and national government, and institutional structures of racism and corruption. The disaster highlighted already-existing problems such as neglect, privatization and deindustrialization.

As New Orleanians, we have seen tragedy first hand. We have lost friends and seen our community devastated. More than 15 months later, we have seen few improvements. Our education, health care and criminal justice systems remain in crisis, and more than 60 percent of the former population of our city remains displaced. Among those that remain, depression and other mental health issues have skyrocketed.

While many nationwide speak of "Katrina Fatigue," we are still living the disaster. We remain committed to our homes and communities. And we still need support.

In 15 months we have hosted visits by countless representatives from an encyclopedic list of prominent organizations and foundations. We have given hundreds of tours of affected areas, and we have assisted in the writing of scores of reports and assessments. We have participated in or assisted in organizing panels and workshops and conferences. We have supplied housing and food and hospitality to hundreds of supporters promising to return with funding and resources, to donate staff and equipment and more. It seems hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised in our name, often using our words, or our stories.

However, just as the government's promises of assistance, such as the "Road Home" program, remain largely out of reach of most New Orleanians, we have also seen very little money and support from liberal and progressive sources.

Instead of prioritizing efforts led by people who are from the communities most affected, we have seen millions of dollars that was advertised as dedicated towards Gulf Coast residents either remain unspent, or shuttled to well-placed outsiders with at best a cursory knowledge of the realities faced by people here. Instead of reflecting local needs and priorities, many projects funded reflect outside perception of what our priorities should be. We have seen attempts to dictate to us what we should do, instead of a real desire to listen and build together.

We are at an historic moment. The disaster on the Gulf Coast, and especially in New Orleans, has highlighted issues of national and international relevance. Questions of race, class, gender, education, health care, food access, policing, housing, privatization, mental health and much more are on vivid display.

The south has been traditionally underfunded and exploited by institutions, including corporations, the labor movement, foundations, and the federal government. We have faced the legacy of centuries of institutional racism and oppression, with little outside support. And yet, against massive odds, grassroots movements in the south have organized and won inspiring victories with international relevance.

In New Orleans, despite personal loss and family tragedies, people are fighting for the future of the city they love. Many are working with little to no funding or support.

We are writing this open letter to you to tell you that it's not too late. The struggle is still ongoing. Evacuees are organizing in trailer parks, health care providers are opening clinics, former public housing residents are fighting to keep their homes from being demolished, artists and media makers are documenting the struggle, educators and lawyers are joining with high school students to fight for better schools.

We ask you, as concerned friends and allies nationwide, as funders and organizations, to look critically at your practices. Has your organization raised money on New Orleans' behalf? Did that money go towards New Orleans-based projects, initiated and directed by those most affected? Have you listened directly to the needs of those in the Gulf and been responsive to them? Have you adjusted your practices and strategies to the organizing realities on the ground?

We ask you to seize this opportunity, and join and support the grassroots movements. If the people of New Orleans can succeed against incredible odds to save their city and their community, it is a victory for oppressed people everywhere. If the people of New Orleans lose, it is a loss for movements everywhere. Struggling together, we can win together.Signed,

Remember the 400 other children in the US under the age of 15 who die from gunshot wounds each year.

Remember the 921 children killed by US air strikes against insurgents in Iraq.

Remember the 1,770 US children who die each year from child abuse and maltreatment.

Remember the 16,000 children who die each day around the world from hunger.

These tragedies must end.

Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola
University New Orleans and Associate Director of the Center for
Constitutional Rights. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com A
version of this article with sources is available.

Doe, et al. v. Caldwell, et al. is a federal class action lawsuit seeking to remove from the sex offender registry the hundreds of people who are still forced to register solely as a result of a CANS conviction despite the March 29, 2012 ruling in Doe v. Jindal that deemed that practice unconstitutional.

In Louisiana, people accused of soliciting sex for a fee can be criminally charged in two ways: either under the prostitution statute, or under the solicitation provision of the Crime Against Nature statute. This archaic statute, adopted in 1805, outlaws “unnatural carnal copulation,” which has been defined by Louisiana courts as oral and anal (but not vaginal) sex. Police and prosecutors have unfettered discretion in choosing which to charge. But a Crime Against Nature conviction subjects people to far harsher penalties than a prostitution conviction. Most significantly, individuals convicted of a Crime Against Nature are forced to register as sex offenders.

The registry law imposes many harsh requirements that impacts every aspect of our clients’ lives. For example, they must carry a state driver’s license or non-drivers’ identification document which brands them as a sex offender in bright orange capital letters. They must disclose the fact that they are registered as a sex offender to neighbors, landlords, employers, schools, parks, community centers, and churches. Their names, address, and photographs appear on the internet.

Many of our clients have been unable to secure work or housing as a result of their registration as sex offenders. Several have been barred from homeless shelters. One has been physically threatened by neighbors. And another has been refused residential substance abuse treatment because providers will not accept sex offenders at their facilities.

Our clients are not alone in being forced to register as sex offenders solely as a result of a Crime Against Nature by Solicitation conviction. Indeed, almost 40 percent of registered sex offenders in Orleans Parish are on the registry as a result of such a conviction. 76 percent of these individuals are women, and 80 percent of them are African American.

CCR argues that being forced to register as a sex offender because of a Crime Against Nature conviction serves no legitimate purpose whatsoever. As such, it is unjustifiable and unconstitutional. CCR further contends that the only reason our clients are registered sex offenders is that they were convicted under the provisions of a 200-year-old statute that condemns non-procreative sex acts and sex acts traditionally associated with homosexuality, solely on grounds of moral disapproval.Women With A Vision also spoke at the New Orleans City Council about the recent arson attack they faced. See the clip here.

Monday, December 3, 2012

“I’m number 119,” proclaims the man sitting beside my desk. His smile is
broad and sincere, gold teeth glistening in the artificial light of the
office. “Damon Thibodeaux is number 141, you know, the one who got out
of Angola a couple weeks ago. Joe Ambrosia is number 140; we was
together on death row in Ohio.” He seems so comfortable with these
numbers, actually proud of them. Proud to be number 119!

If I
were not aware of what he refers to, I might be shocked by his proud
announcement, but it isn’t that way for us. Derrick Jamison is here to
share his story with me, the story of how he landed on death row for a
crime he did not commit, the story of a young man who spent over
seventeen years fighting for his life as he awaited execution, and the
story of a man who was finally exonerated, the 119th such person in the
United States.

Derrick Jamison, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was
twenty-four years old when he was convicted of aggravated murder and
robbery on October 16, 1985. He was represented by a public defender in a
case where the prosecutor and homicide detective withheld thirty-five
pieces of evidence. They knew he was not guilty from the start, but
getting the conviction was their goal. Apparently, it did not matter who
their “victim” was!

Derrick entered death row at Southern Ohio
Correctional Facility on October 25, the very day he was sentenced, and
was placed into solitary confinement, behind bars, in a 6’x9’ cell, with
no physical human contact for seventeen years. At times the prison
would be locked down, and he would not be allowed visits or mail from
anyone, even from his lawyer, for extended periods of time. For many
years of his confinement, Derrick was allowed only two five-minute phone
calls per year, one on Christmas Day.

While on death row,
Derrick was granted six stays of execution. One was while he was in
lockdown, so he did not even receive the notification. Another stay was
granted on the actual scheduled date of his execution. He waited until
the last minute, with crowds of protesters and supporters gathered
outside the prison. When asked what he wanted for his last meal, he
replied ,”A cake with a saw in it! I’m not thinking about no food. I’m
thinking about dying.” Six times he went through various stages of this
harrowing process, and six times it was halted by an official stay by
the governor of Ohio.

For the first fourteen years, until 1999,
Ohio had the death penalty as part of its system, and there were many
inmates on death row awaiting execution, but the state did not use it.
Since 1999, they have executed forty-seven inmates and exonerated six.
These statistics do not include the even larger number of death row
inmates whose sentences were reduced to life imprisonment during the
past thirteen years. At one point, the governor, Richard Celeste, upon
leaving office, reduced the sentences of all eight women on death row
and of several men who were on their final appeals. One of the women
whose sentence he reduced had been sentenced to at least eight death
penalties for serial murders. Derrick says that he would not have
accepted this condition had it been offered. He knew he was innocent and
sought exoneration, not a reduced sentence.

At one point,
Derrick was offered the opportunity to go free on time served, if he
would admit guilt and stop his appeals. He refused. “People thought I
lost my mind. I couldn’t admit to something I didn’t do. I’d rather
die.”

“Death Row is the same as Schindler’s List,” Derrick
continues. “You’re just watching your friends be murdered time and
again.” Derrick watched healthy young men come in “like babies – 18 and
19 years old. I watched them grow into men and then they just killed
‘em. It’s like somebody pointing a gun at you and there ain’t nothin’
you can do. They had nobody to fight for them.” Ohio is second in the
nation behind Texas in executions.

In 2002, John Byrd was
executed. Another man came forward and admitted to the crime for which
John had been convicted, but they still killed him. John and Derrick had
become close friends on death row. “I curled up on my bunk watching TV,
trying not to deal with it, but when they rolled John out on the gurney
to his execution….” He paused and cleared his throat, attempting to
regain his composure. “It still haunts me. A healthy young man, my
buddy, but he was rebellious on the row.” Derrick, on the other hand,
never had any write ups on death row. He was not a rebel. “If I had
given in to anger and hostility, I would’ve lost my mind. I seen what it
did to those other guys. I’m a miracle. All them men, all them babies
were in there, some innocent like me, and I walked out. I’m the
miracle.”

On May 23, 2002, Federal Judge Arthur Spiegel granted
Derrick a new trial. He was moved to general population for three years
while the justice system plodded along the path to his ultimate
exoneration and release on October 25, 2005, exactly twenty years to the
day from the day he first entered death row. His nephew came to pick
him up, and the entire family was waiting for him when he got
home…everyone except his two closest and most active supporters. “I
didn’t die on death row, but my death penalty killed my parents.”

There
were events of celebration for a month straight. It was a busy time,
and it was good. “If I could bottle up that feeling and sell it, I’d be a
millionaire!” He was enjoying life. “When I first came home, I went to
the casinos. I won a lot of money; I lost a lot of money. That’s why
they call it gambling. I had been a gambler before I went to prison.”
There were parties, media events, and Derrick was in demand to speak at
area events, “but my biggest supporters weren’t there. My mom was
smiling from heaven.”

Asked about his current situation, Derrick
reveals that he is on disability due to post traumatic stress disorder.
“We ain’t been to jail; we been to hell and back,” he says. The
disability compensation permits him to have a part-time job with limited
pay, but he remains unemployed.

He spends a significant amount
of time speaking to others, sharing his story. He remembers that he went
to Catholic schools as a child and says that God gives him the power to
go out and share his message with others. “When I speak to a large
crowd, something comes over me. That’s God. God has made me into a
teacher. I’m a teacher now.”

Derrick tells kids that he thinks
that they are all at risk in today’s society. He urges them to remember
him and others like him when they experience bad times. “We need to get
rid of the death penalty,” he says. “What are we teaching our young
people, when our government says it’s alright to kill?” He compares the
death penalty to modernized lynchings, remembering what he learned in
history class about families coming out with picnic baskets to watch the
hangings in the town square. “That might have been a deterrent then,
but this, what we have, doesn’t work!”

Our system will always
make mistakes. “To err is human, right? We have to stop executing
entirely so we won’t be killing innocent people on those mistakes.”

Derrick
tells his audiences that he was never involved in drugs in his life,
because he was always against them. “I seen what it did to people in my
neighborhood.” He assures them that death row is populated by many
different types of people. “A lot of guys on death row were pure evil
and dangerous, but that doesn’t give somebody the right to kill them.
Some were good guys that made mistakes.”

What does his future
look like? “I’ll never heal; none of these guys will ever heal. We can’t
be compensated for what’s been done to us. My life will get better, but
I’ll never get over it. It will always be there…the nightmares. It’s
something no human being should have to experience.”

Indian Santa is a short documentary about, as the name suggests, Indian
Santa. The tradition was started in 1985 when Hurricane Juan devastated
the Houma Indian communities along the Gulf Coast. The Houma families
received little help after the storm, and presents were going to be
absent from many Houma children's Christmas.

Joe Dardard, a Houma
Indian, decided to take action. He teamed up with Toys for Tots and
dressed as Santa--with a twist. In addition to the red Santa suit, Joe
Dardard donned a traditional tribal headdress. The result, children in
the Houma community received at least a moment of joy during the
holiday. Over 20 years later, Indian Santa continues to spread Christmas
cheer throughout the Houma Indian community. Thomas Dardar, Joe's
nephew and Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation, has been serving
as Indian Santa for the past seven years.

I produced the film
because, although several chapters in books and a few films have
mentioned the Houma, all of those pieces focus on the adversity the
tribe faces. I wanted to show something genial happening within the
tribe.

Indian
Santa was scheduled to be shown December 6th and 8th at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian's "At the Movies"
Screening Series with My Louisiana Love but due to Hurricane Sandy, the
screening has been moved to the spring of 2013. Indian Santa is an
official selection of the New Orleans Film Festival, the South Alabama
Film Festival, the Life Film Festival (Winner Best Documentary), and the
American Indian Film Festival.

Just as Indian Santa is a tradition among the Houma, dealing with disaster has become part of the Houma culture as well.

Hurricanes
and the BP spill have absolutely crippled many citizens of the United
Houma Nation, who primarily work in the seafood and oil industries. This
year, Hurricane Isaac wreaked havoc in Braithwaite, Louisiana, a Houma
Indian community.

Aside from disaster, another constant is the
federal government's persistent refusal to acknowledge the United Houma
Nation as an Indian tribe. Houma Indian children were forced to attend a
segregated Indian school until 1969; that is, five years after the
passage of the Civil Rights of 1964 officially desegregated society.
Nevertheless, the federal government insists the Houma are not an Indian
tribe.

Federal recognition would be immensely beneficial to the
Houma because it would make the tribe eligible for disaster relief
programs and funds to help combat coastal erosion. Coastal erosion is
major reason recent hurricanes have been unusually impactful. The
barrier islands, now vanished, served as a buffer weakening hurricanes before they hit coastal populations – the Houma. Thanks to the vanished
islands and shrinking coastline, Houma Indian communities such as Isle de Jean Charles and Point-Aux-Chenes are now the storm buffer.

The
BP disaster serves the most obvious example of how lack of federal
recognition harms the Houma. In response the United Houma Nation's
damages claim, BP replied:

"While BP indeed processes claims from
federally recognized Indian Tribes through this process, our review of
your claim submission indicates that the United Houma Nation is not a
federally recognized Indian Tribe entitled to assert claims pursuant to
the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 ('OPA'). Therefore, we are closing your
claim file with regard to this matter."

Indian Santa is
lighthearted movie. It spotlights something positive happening in a
community wrought with hardship. My hope is the film's success will
bring interest to the tribe, its ongoing struggles, and support from
allies. The more national recognition the UHN receives, the closer the
UHN will be to federal recognition.

Photo: Principal Chief Thomas Dardar as Indian Santa in 2011, courtesy of 'Indian Santa'. Learn more about Indian Santa at the film's website or Facebook page.

Adam Crepelle is a citizen of the United Houma Nation. He serves on the tribe’s Tribal Security and Community Services Committee and the tribe’s Diabetes’s Coalition. Adam received his degree in exercise science from the University of Louisiana Lafayette in 2009. He is currently in his third year at Southern University Law Center.

Monday, November 26, 2012

In one of the larger protests New Orleans has seen in recent years, nearly two hundred demonstrators marched through New Orleans' French Quarter on Saturday, November 17, to protest the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The next day, a mostly student crowd of about 40 held a candlelight vigil at Tulane University, in an action organized by a new campus group called Tulane Students for Justice in Palestine.

One week later, in the aftermath of the declared ceasefire, a smaller march once again traveled through the French Quarter, calling for an end to US financial and diplomatic support for Israeli Apartheid, and pointing out that, despite the ceasefire, Palestinians were still being killed by Israeli military forces.

African
Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa (AAJMENA)
strongly condemns Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The arguments offered by the Israeli government for its attack on
Gaza are nakedly cynical in both form and content. That a truce had been
negotiated, with the assistance of the Egyptian government, between
Israel and Hamas only to be broken by the Israeli assassination of Hamas
military commander Ahmad Jabari clearly indicates that the Netanyahu
government is not interested in peace. Israel is responsible for the
escalating violence and for this epic breach of human rights.

This
crisis underscores a stunning power imbalance. Nuclear-armed Israel, by
far the most powerful military force in the Middle East (and among the
mightiest in the world), has unleashed its immense war making capacity
on Gaza’s captive population, mobilizing warships and tanks and
launching more than 1,000 F-16 airstrikes since the attack began. The
use of such weapons on civilians is a flagrant violation of the US
Arms Export Control Act.

The aggression against Gaza must be
understood as the latest act in the decades-long oppression of the
Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government. Blockaded Gaza has been plunged into misery by the Israeli-US effort to thwart
the democratic will of the Palestinian people as demonstrated in their
2006 legislative elections. When a coup was attempted against Hamas—and
failed—the Israelis sealed Gaza, spinning events to make it appear that
those not interested in peace were the Palestinians. As a result, Gaza
is the largest open-air prison in the world, with 1.5 million people
locked into a roughly 140-square-mile strip of land. This latest
humanitarian crisis has caused the disproportionate death and suffering
of Palestinians, but casualties on both sides will be the consequence of
Israeli aggression.

Rather than taking a stand against the Israeli’s
onslaught and issuing an unambiguous demand for an end to the
bloodshed, the Obama administration has condemned alleged Palestinian
terrorism, repeating the dishonest line that this violent attack is
merely in defense of Israel (a position reinforced by the one-sided
coverage of the corporate news media). This represents a massive failure
on the administration’s part. For all Obama’s denunciation of the Assad
regime in Syria, it appears that his administration regards the
outright slaughter of civilians in Palestine as acceptable. It is
crucial that we recognize the extent of US complicity in the
bloodshed; our tax dollars ($8.5 million a day) enable Israeli
militarism at a time when those funds are desperately needed to fill
gaps in services and infrastructure back home.

As African
Americans and people of African descent in the US from academia,
activism and various social movements, we cannot remain silent. We call
upon all people of good will to:

1. Endorse this statement.

2.
Communicate with the White House and the US Department of State to
request that President Obama demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and the IDF cease the bombardment of Gaza and withdraw their armed
forces immediately. Insist that the US condition aid to Israel on
compliance with U.S. and international law.

3. Contact the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and demand that Israel withdraw its forces and end the blockade.

4.
Send your local media outlet a letter to the editor expressing
outrage against the provocative and murderous acts of the Israeli
government.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Join Survivors Village, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Alberto LoveraBolivarian
Circle, and the New Orleans Consulate of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela for this critical program about the struggle for food
sovereignty in Venezuela and lessons that can be learned and applied in
the struggle for food sovereignty in oppressed and exploited communities
within the United States.

Growing Change is a documentary that
looks at one of the most exciting experiments in the world to grow a
fair and sustainable food system. In Venezuela, from fishing villages to
cacao plantations to urban gardens, a growing social movement is
showing what’s possible when communities, not corporations, start to
take control of food.

Monday, November 5, 2012

District B City Council candidate Eric Strachan sent out a mailer this week attacking one of his opponents for supporting Barack Obama. While President Obama is not popular in Louisiana, he is popular in New Orleans, including in the district Strachan seeks to represent. In 2008, Obama easily carried the city with 79% of the vote in New Orleans. Strachan, a Republican who switched his registration to Democratic in 2011, presents himself as a Democratic candidate, while also seeking Republican support.

In the mailer, which was paid for by the Strachan campaign, District B candidate Dana Kaplan is also attacked for being a liberal, a community organizer, and for her work with Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Strachan also overreaches in claiming credit for establishing the Office of Inspector General. In fact, the office was approved by voters in 1995, long before Strachan's career in government began, and implemented a decade later through a push by Councilmember Shelly Midura, among others.

After Katrina, churches and other
religious charities—from Salvation Army to Scientologists—coordinated
many of the relief efforts. This was a furthering of the Bush administration’s goal of privatizing social services and
increasing the social role of religious institutions. Some groups provided essential and vital aid, but
their overall effort contributed to the re-positioning of relief as a
nongovernmental and profit-driven function.

A February 2006 report
from New York City’s Foundation Center points out that the Red Cross,
which raised perhaps two billion dollars from Katrina appeals despite
widespread accusations of racism and mismanagement, “ranked as by far
the largest named recipient of contributions from foundation and
corporate donors in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” receiving
almost 35 percent of all aid, while grassroots and locally-led projects received virtually no support. However, communities across the Gulf Coast reported that the aid was not reaching those most in need, and there were widespread accusations of racism at Red Cross facilities.

According to an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy,
foundations “seem to have been preoccupied with the issue of
accountability. Many foundations wondered how they could be certain that
grants to local groups would be well spent and, therefore, publicly
accountable.” While those are reasonable concerns, it also reveals a
double standard. The Chronicle writer goes on to state, “the question of
accountability didn't seem to bother the large foundations that gave so
generously to the Red Cross, which had a questionable record of
competence to begin with and attracted even more criticism in the
aftermath of Katrina over its unwise use of funds, high administrative
costs, and lack of outreach to minorities.”

Red Cross and other large and
bureaucratic aid agencies that function without and means of community
accountability were quick to fundraise for Haiti. But did their aid
reach people on the ground? The Associated Press reported
that for every one dollar of US aid to Haiti, "42 cents is for
disaster assistance, 33 cents is for the US military, 9 cents is for
food, 9 cents is to transport the food, 5 cents to pay Haitians to help
with recovery effort, less than 1 cent for the Haitian government and ½ a
cent is for the government of the Dominican Republic."

Tracy
Kidder, of the Haiti-based organization Partners in Health/ Zanmi
Lasante, said it very well: "There are 10,000 aid organizations in
Haiti, and Haiti is still one of the poorest countries in the world -
then something‘s wrong with the way things are, the way aid is being
administered."

A statement signed by six human rights organizations
brought these concerns to the discussion of Haiti relief. "There is no
doubt that Haiti's hungry, thirsty, injured, and sick urgently need all
the assistance the international community can provide, but it is
critical that the underlying goal of improving human rights drives the
distribution of every dollar of aid given to Haiti," said Loune Viaud,
Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at Partners in Health, one
of the drafters of the letter. "The only way to avoid escalation of
this crisis is for international aid to take a long-term view and strive
to rebuild a stronger Haiti -- one that includes a government that can
ensure the basic human rights of all Haitians and a nation that is
empowered to demand those rights."

Anyone who sees the devastation caused by a disaster wants to help. But keep in mind that it is local grassroots organizations who are based in communities that are best positioned to know who needs aid and how to get it to them. And, in the long term, what communities need is the support to be able to lead their own recovery and reconstruction.

Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour news channel available in more than 250 million households in over 130 countries. They have 65 bureaus across the globe, mostly rooted in the global South. As part of their US election coverage, they are airing this series of short videos focused on some of the issues that have shaped this election. The videos were produced by a team that includes New Orleans journalist Jordan Flaherty and filmed in cities across the US.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Reposted from the Alliance Institute:
Supporters
of bounce music culture rallied on Oct. 18th in front of 201 St.
Charles, home of Cumulus Broadcasting and 102.9FM Radio, asking that
station management reinstate the “Power Posse” morning show.

Recently
the “Power Posse” was taken off the air to make room for the “Rickey
Smiley Show,” a nationally syndicated radio program. “We don’t oppose
syndicated radio, however, we just want to keep our local musicians and
artists working,” said Bounce Nation community organizer and bounce rap
artist Crystal “Crowd Mova” Dixon.

Supporting local musicians and
artists and keeping local jobs here in New Orleans should be a top
priority of all groups, organizations, and companies doing business here
in the city, said Dixon.

The Bounce Nation rally brought together bounce rap artists and supporters, as well as ministers from several local churches.

“We
know that our future is inextricably bound up and linked with young
people,” said Pastor Dwight Webster of Christian Unity Baptist Church,
addressing the crowd gathered in front of the building entrance. “This
bounce phenomenon is not something that’s going to go away, but the jobs
are going away. If we don’t pay attention to what is necessary to keep
the local jobs here and support the local efforts, we’re going to lose
our young people.”

Bounce Nation collected over 1000 signatures
from New Orleans youth and other bounce music supporters calling for the
reinstatement of the “Power Posse” morning show. In addition to being
the only local morning radio show targeting New Orleans Youth and Bounce
Culture, the “Power Posse” promotes local artists who in turn create
jobs for youth and positively contribute to the local economy.

Bounce
Nation representatives attempted to turn in the petitions and a letter
to the 102.9 program director at the Cumulus Broadcasting office on the
2nd floor, but were barred from entering by building security
personnel. The head of security said that Cumulus management did not
want to let Bounce Nation and rally participants inside the suite and
refused to accept the petitions, and then asked the contingent to leave
the building altogether or risk being arrested.

Bounce Nation is a
youth empowerment project of Alliance Institute that uses bounce music
culture as a way of helping young people establish a voice for themselves and impact the future of New Orleans.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Join the Librotraficantes for an evening of contraband prose at Casa
Borrega, 1719 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Friday, November 2, from
7-8:30pm.

Imagine the New Orleans School Board banning
African American books. Well, the equivalent of this happened just this
year in Tucson where the Latino population is comparable in size to that
of the African Americans in New Orleans.

In January
2012 the Tucson Unified School Board banned Mexican American ethnic
studies. This means no history, prose, fiction or other forms of Mexican
American culture can be taught in the schools. This includes classics
like Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya and The House on Mango Street by
Sandra Cisneros. This anti-constitutional book ban is part of a
curriculum change to avoid “biased, political and emotionally charged”
teaching. In response to this law, the Librotraficante
Caravan to Smuggle Banned Books Back to Tucson grew and blossomed into a movement. In March of 2012, the group organized six cities, smuggled
over 1,000 “wet-books” donated from all over the country, and opened
four Under Ground Libraries.

According to their website, “The
Librotraficante movement is the tip of the pyramid. It stands on the
base created by its parent organization Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers
Having Their Say. Nuestra Palabra has been promoting Latino literature
and literacy in Houston, Texas since 1998. “

The original
Librotraficante and founder of Nuestra Puebla is professor and writer Tony Diaz, the author of novel The Aztec Love God, which was selected as
the 1998 Nilon Award for Excellence in Minority Fiction. Ishmael Reed
called Diaz “Relentlessly brilliant.” Diaz has just completed his
second novel The Children of the Locust Tree.

According to the
New York Times, “Mr. Diaz is the impresario behind an inspiring act of
indignation and cultural pride.” Tony explains, “My first job as a
child was to translate the outside world for my parents. Now, I
translate our culture for the rest of the world.”

Tony and fellow
Librotraficantes Liana Lopez and Bryan Parras are travelling the country
to raise awareness sharing their mind altering prose, news, and
writing-before it is confiscated.

With its growing
Latino population, Greater New Orleans has been desperately in need of a
gathering place to celebrate the cultural life of this important ethnic
group. Casa Borrega intends to fill the gap, and this event serves as a
sneak preview for the venue, which will open later this year.

Casa Borrega will have an altar installed to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

In the past few months, the ACLU of Louisiana has received numerous allegations of excessive or unjustified use of chemical agents, such as OC (oleoresin capsicum), upon inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP). We write to bring the issue to your attention, and to request that you provide us LSP’s policies on chemical spray use, investigate the matter and immediately correct any unlawful practices.

Background

Specifics vary, but the theme of each account is the same: with increasing frequency and decreasing restraint, corrections officers at LSP are using chemical irritant upon offenders in inappropriate ways. The spray is not being used sparingly to discipline unruly or disobedient inmates, but gratuitously to punish offenders who pose no threat and are engaged in lawful activity.

For example, in several complaints, inmates state that chemical spray was discharged into their locked, unventilated cells and left to linger there, forcing them to breathe the acrid fumes for hours at a time. They add either that they were not given opportunities to decontaminate, or that decontamination followed only many hours later - in some cases only when the trapped inmates were in respiratory distress and required medical attention.

Inmates also allege that they were sprayed for complaining about minor problems, such as not being allowed to shower during a regularly-allotted bathing time; or for requesting emergency medical assistance; or for minor incidents such as failing to clear the cell floor of water that had spilled from a blocked toilet. Inmates state that on several occasions, Without instigation, they were taken in groups to the showers, stripped naked, doused with pepper spray and simply returned to their cells Without explanation.

Perhaps most seriously, quite a few inmates complained that they were sprayed in retaliation for filing administrative grievances, and in some cases were specifically told by corrections that they would be sprayed again unless they withdrew their complaints.

Law Regarding Pepper Spray Use

As you are aware, the law does not permit use of chemical agents upon inmates for purely punitive or malicious purposes - use must be justified either by disciplinary need or a threat to security. Indeed, the federal courts of both Louisiana and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal have specifically addressed some of the factual scenarios we describe above. For example, the Fifth Circuit on more than one occasion has held it unlawful to spray inmates who are confined to a cell and pose no threat to corrections officers. Chambers v. Johnson, 372 Fed. Appx. 471, 473 (5th Cir. 2010); Johnson v. Dubroc, 3 F.3d 436 (Sth Cir. 1993) (Eighth Amendment violated where an isolation-tier inmate who loudly called out to another inmate
from inside his cell was sprayed in the face, treated and allowed a shower and change of clothes, but then was returned to his still-contaminated cell).

Similarly, the Middle District of Louisiana has stated that chemical agents cannot be used against inmates maliciously or for no apparent reason. Causey v. Poret, 2007 WL 2701969 (MD. La. 2007) (Eighth Amendment violated Where officers maced, choked, and kicked inmate in the shower removing him from the kitchen area, where he had been accused of looking at a female officer).

Likewise, the Middle District has recognized excessive force where corrections officers pepper­sprayed an inmate after commanding him to take off all his clothes and locking him in a segregation cell, where he then became argumentative but still posed no threat. Young v. Huberl, 2008 WL 2019576 (M.D. La. 2008).

And of course, retaliation against an inmate for filing a grievance is unlawfull in any form, including retaliation by chemical spray, as it violates the First Amendment. Morris v. Powell, 449 F.3d 682, 684 (Sth Cir. 2006) (prison officials may not retaliate against a prisoner for exercising his First Amendment right of access to the courts or to complain through proper channels about a guard’s misconduct through the grievance process).

Relief

All of the scenarios we have listed above seem to be increasing in frequency, and all cross the line into excessive force, and therefore violate the Eighth andfor First Amendments. We therefore request the following:

(1) That you investigate the use of chemical agent at LSP to ensure that such use comports with applicable regulations, state and federal law;
(2) That you immediately curb any unlawful chemical spray practices at LSP and take all measures necessary to ensure that such practices do not recur including training all appropriate personnel on the lawful use of chemical agents;
(3) That you provide this office with a report of your investigation, including a report of any remedial or corrective measures taken; and
(4) That you provide this offìce with a copy of all guidelines, rules and regulations applicable to chemical spray use at L-SP3.

I will expect to hear from you within 48 hours. Please do not hesitate to Contact us if you have any questions. I look forward to your response.

While in Houston TX. to
attend a convention on reparations I began receiving phone calls, text
and email messages describing a situation back home in New Orleans. It
appeared that juniors and seniors at Walter L. Cohen walked out of school on
Thursday October 4, 2012. Students say they are “Tired of the lies and
misrepresentations” of New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD)
administrators and Future is Now (FIN), a national charter school
organization. The last straw was RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard’s decision to
fire Cohen’s principal, his staff and several teachers who students say
they had grown to love and look upon as members of their Cohen High
School family.

Students say that decision, coupled with Dobard’s
unilateral decision to turn over governance of Cohen’s 11th and
12th-grade classes to FIN was the final straw and prompted them to walk
out and refuse to return to class until a list of demands were met. Student Demands appear basic and reasonable to some, while
unacceptable to others.

As
a community organizer I wore my Peace Keepers shirt and spent the
entire day with the students, parents, and other organizers. Monday
October 8th was probably the coldest day since last winter. At 8:00AM
students braved the cold in their school uniforms prepared for class
they anxiously gathered around the front door of their school to hear
the decision of school administrators.

When administrators
offered access to the building but failed to address their demands,
students refused to enter. Administrators retreated to the inside of the
building and soon returned to offer the protesting students access to
the school’s library to escape the cold. Students declined the offer.
Some began chanting “NO, NO. WE WON’T GO.” They all laughed at the
imitation 60’s chant as I realized they had no idea of how similar they
were to the movement of the 60’s.

During the half hour we
lingered in front of that door, students selected five facilitators. We
decided to shift our headquarters to the corner and warmth of the sun.
One of the adults suggested we get chairs from the school for the
students to sit. As I walked with him to request the chairs we were met
by Dana Peterson, one of Dobard’s assistants. We asked him who we would
need to speak with to get the chairs. He said “They will probably say
no.” I asked Peterson why they would say no to chairs when they invited
the students into the library earlier. He replied “That was to get them
into the school. He became irritated as I charged “You mean you were
using the warmth of the library to lure the kids into the building?” He
appeared irritated at my charge and said “You can phrase it however you
want to.” As he turned and started to walk away we noticed students
walking out of the school with stacks of chairs to bring to their
classmates. He then relented “Obviously you can” as he stormed away.

As
the day progressed more parents and organizers began to arrive. Later
neighbors, Cohen alumni and other concerned citizens joined us. More
puzzle pieces were discussed. Some questioned why would this RSD
superintendent sell these Cohen High School juniors and seniors to FIN?
Others theorized; FIN has acquired John McDonough High but fell short in
their commitment to enroll 300 students as their current enrollment is
closer to 100. By acquiring Cohen’s 120 juniors and seniors FIN gets
closer to the needed 300 students although the students would remain
housed at Cohen they would be added to FIN’s head count which would
bring FIN closer to their million dollar payday.

Several
retired teachers arrived to hold class with the students who were eager
to resume the process of learning. Around noon the students, who were
amazingly well disciplined and controlled, were obviously growing cold,
tired, hungry and confused. We all were. But much of the student’s
confusion was intensified by administrators planting false seeds into
their minds as they attempted to turn the students against their adult
supporters.

Chad Brousard introduced himself to organizers as a
Breaux Bridge resident who was brought in as principal of John McDonough
and later shifted to Cohen. Brousard began with what sounded like a
canned speech about students exercising their rights to protest as our
ancestors had done… he said he wanted to speak with the students in
small groups. We asked in the spirit of transparency if he would speak
with them as one group, they were all assembled just a few yards away in
front of our faces. He agreed to do so but turned back as we approached
the students. We later found that he had somehow managed to get a few
students into the library and had them sitting at a table writing out a
list of demands.

We asked administrators if they planned to feed
the student’s lunch. They said the students were welcome to eat lunch
inside, in the school cafeteria. The large majority of students declined
the invitation. Adult supporters hurriedly worked it out and bought
food and drink for the children to eat.

A group of seven or eight
boys huddled near a car decided to break ranks with their classmates.
They walked around the other students and headed to the door. One of the
teens tapped Brousard who was standing near the door who immediately
followed them inside.

After a half hour another organizer and I
went into the school library where we found some of the boys seated
while eating doughnuts. A group of FIN teachers were lounging on the
other side of the room. The students told us they had gone inside the
school because they were concerned and wanted to study for the test they
would soon have to take in order to graduate. My colleague then
demanded the teachers to relinquish their seats and to begin the process
of educating the students. They hurriedly complied.

As the
cameras assembled for the scheduled 3:00PM press conference a woman
(some say she was an obvious provocateur) was sent to disrupt by accusing an
organizer of betraying the students by working for the RSD. Again the
awesome students held their composure and proceeded with their press
conference as scheduled.

Many of the students remained seated and
composed after the press conference because they intended to remain for
the RSD scheduled meeting with parents and students.

An
obviously nervous Superintendent Dobard convened the meeting by telling
the students “We as adults like to keep doing things as before…” as to
imply they were being manipulated by their adult supporters. He informed
us all that “A contract has already been signed.” He promised the
students that “All seniors and juniors will graduate from Cohen High
School from this building.”

He said “I made a decision because I
could not standby to watch students not being educated,” He threatened
that “Staff will be available to work on transfers tomorrow for students
who want to transfer elsewhere.” He responded to shouts from students
regarding books “We will address books.” When students complained about
ceiling tiles on one side of the cafeteria designated for New Orleans
College Prep (a charter school that shares the building with Cohen) and
missing tiles on the Cohen student’s side of that same space he said “We
will evaluate the ceiling tiles.”

Adults in the audience became
disruptive and started yelling complaints to him. I could not hear the
questions but I did hear his responses which were “I will work on that
and I will address that.”

As I spoke to students to ask for
clarity on some of their complaints I learned that they do not have
individual books and must share books in the classrooms. When they need
to go to the restroom they must go to the office to request toilet
paper. I began to reflect on my days in the Orleans Parish school system
during the Jim Crow era. We did have toilet paper in the restrooms and
every student had a full set of books although most of them were handed
down out dated books from white schools when they became tattered, worn
and too old for white students. I began to wonder if we were better off
during Jim Crow days. Now that African Americans hold executive
positions in our education system are we now in “Tom Crow Days?”

One
former teacher (Black male) said he holds a master’s degree and was
fired by State Superintendent John White who has a bachelor’s degree. He
further stated that proven certified teachers are being replaced with
uncertified/under qualified teachers. Upset adults went off again when
Dobard responded with “Everything is not about qualifications.”

A
newly fired Cohen teacher became emotional when he spoke. He said “I
was hired on Friday, my first day was Monday, I was evaluated on Tuesday
and fired on Wednesday. Students later rushed over to embrace their
teacher and assure him that everything will be alright.

An adult
supporter who spoke directly to Dobard spoke of a West bank girl who
lives six blocks from Landry High School but has to awaken at 5:30AM to
be bussed to a school in New Orleans East. He told Dobard “You are
guilty of Black on Black Crime.”

The meeting ended abruptly when
many of the frustrated students stood up and angrily walked out. I found
it ironic that in today’s world with all of the anti-bullying campaigns
that a school system would so BRUTALLY BULLY children placed under
there care.

Parnell Herbert is a
recently returned New Orleanian who was previously displaced to
Houston by Hurricane Katrina. He is active on many social justice
causes, including the right of return for New Orleanians, and freedom
for the Angola Three. His new play, Angola Three, has been performed in
New Orleans and other cities.

Students
at Walter L. Cohen in New Orleans began a walk out/protest on October 4th, 2012 when their teachers and administrators were dismissed and the
announcement was made that Future Is Now Charter (Steven Barr, formerly
of Green Dot in California, and Gideon Stein) would be taking over the
governance of the school.

This is against the firing of Cohen teachers and administration and the
take-over by Future is Now (FIN) charter. Decisions about the governance of the school, including New Orleans College Prep being
housed in Cohen's building, must be reversed and remade to include
students and parents of Cohen. Cohen students and parents must be made a
part of all decisions about Cohen.

Official Demands Written by Walter L. Cohen Students on October 7, 2012 (edited to reflect changes made on October 10):

1. Resources and Building repair for Walter L. Cohen High School.
- Photos of building providing evidence of different conditions between NOCPREP and Cohen

2. Graduate Exit Exam (GEE) and End of Course (EOC) waivers given caused by disruption learning.
Students must not be penalized for missing seat time until our demands are met.

3. Students cannot be bought and sold. This situation is very frustrating and opinions should have
been considered, and not done behind closed doors. Walter L. Cohen students and parents
demand real “CHOICE” to determine the governance of the school. Any previous decisions made
determining the governance of Cohen should be reversed and required to go through parent/
student/teacher/administrator committee. If the decision is to return the school to Walter L.
Cohen under Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), New Orleans College Prep students will be
welcome. All current students graduate from Walter L. Cohen.

4. This type of hostile take-over did not just begin with Cohen; it has been going on since the weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

5. The Recovery School District (RSD), Future is Now Schools (FINS), and New Orleans College Prep Charter School (NOCP) do not have our best interests at heart. These administrators have their
educations, and yet when we are so close to completing high school, they decide to make this
unexpected decision.

6. ALL Teachers, administration and faculty must be retained. Any faculty member from school
year 2012-2013 fired must be reinstated. We need written documentation demonstrating why
any faculty members were dismissed. We need written documentation of any reprimands of
faculty members. In the future, if a faculty member is to be dismissed, written documentation
and a plan must be created and followed.
ALL teachers and administrators must be fully certified by the state of Louisiana (which
must be documented online at TeachLouisiana.net). Out of State Certifications are
acceptable.

7. Data from New Orleans College Prep, Cohen, and Future is Now Schools must be made available concerning the following information:
- Student testing history
- Suspension / expulsion data
- Police reports
- Attrition rates for students and teachers
- Graduation rate data
- Post-secondary data (admission statistics for graduated seniors)